[Locke]

Flowers 13. The camera loves Mayuri, shame the story isn't interested.

I personally found this episode pretty frustrating. To me, one of the most rewarding parts of any story is continuity, especially a long running one. Continuity provides rewards for sticking around, I absolutely hate shows that cater to those who poke their heads in for one episode half way through, as if somehow someone whose stuck around from the start is valued equally to them as a floater drifting past.

Sadly...especially when it comes to power levels...GARO has no real continuity. I get Raiga is GARO, the best of the best, which may explain why he never needs to be in his armour for longer than like fifteen seconds but GARO also makes a big deal out of how few Knights there are, so each one is special.

Despite this, the majority of the Knights we meet have practically no defined characterisation and are no better really than your average sentai footsoldier. We were introduced to about six Knights this episode, five of them were dead by about the second minute in and none of them bar one is named. Hell none of them had any on screen armour, and they added practically a fat pile of fuck all to the episode minus a few contrived moments of contrivance.

If that wasn't bad enough though, the ones with defined personality are so rare that they practically feel like plotholes in themselves. Why do Knights like Zero and Dan have their own unique armours and weapons, when it was shown the vast majority of Knights all fight with the same weapon and armour? Surely if there are so few Knights, none of them would be weak and the difference in power between Zero and Makai Knight A should be relatively small?

But to further throw a cog in the works remember that Knight in the Zero special? Despite not even getting a design on his coat, the sheer laziness around his characterisation actually made him come across much stronger than Raiga as he was able to go toe to toe with Ring without even transforming. What was the deal with that?

And I know most people are forgiving of stuff like this, for reasons I can't really understand, but it really frustrates me that Japan make these long running franchises but then seem to care very little, to not at all, as to how all the pieces are supposed to fit together. Even if cross franchise continuity ala Marvel is not something that interests them, each individual series at least should make sense and adhere to its own rules.

Speaking more specifically of the episode itself, it had some of the best CG I've seen from a tokusatsu production and the aerial battle was breathtaking. With so many brief armour action sequences this series, that aerial sequence was a real hark back to all those epic comicbook like moments from the first two seasons.

But I dunno, in a way, that sequence - and this episode in general - really made me realise what a weak season it's been overall, it's still better than Makai Senki but not a touch on the original GARO season or TOWSITD but I guess we might not be too late yet for the show to turn it around.